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There are currently 37 member reviews
for The Last Year of the War
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Barbara P. (Mountain Center, CA)
We All Need a Place to Call Home
Susan Meisner has introduced us to a family, and most specifically, a young woman, to whom we can relate and empathize with her desires to find a true friend, fit in and be her real self. Along the way we are introduced to atrocities that have gone wholly unrecognized by our society and authors of hundreds of other books dealing with WWII. Thank you, Ms Meisner, for giving us a fresh voice and new understanding of what it was like to be a German American during this dark time in our world.
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Marianne D. (Crofton, MD)
Not Just Another WWII Book
I'm not sure what I expected from "The Last Year of the War," but author Susan Meissner surprised me. For at least the first 100 pages, I was unimpressed. I found the writing flat and rarely above the fourth grade level. The central fact around which the story is spun, that both Germans and Japanese living in the United States were interned during World War II, is something many may not know. Meissner's storyline is interesting and, for the most part, plausible (maybe anything was plausible during and after WWII), but the simplicity of the telling left me wanting more. Some of the main characters seemed two-dimensional, despite the amount of space given to their description.The last 75-100 pages of the book took it from three stars to 4 for me. "The Last Year of the War" is bittersweet throughout, with what will happen to the now 80 year-old main character left to the reader's imagination at the very end. At least Ms.Meissner did not try to tie everything together with a big bow.
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Harriette K. (Northbrook, IL)
The Last Year Of The War
The onset of World War 2 finds two teenage girls, both born in the U.S., but one with parents who had been born in Japan, one with parents born in Germany and now declared undesirable aliens. The girls, Mariko and Elise become close friends in the internment camp to which the families are sent. Through different circumstances each family is repatriated to its country of origin. The girls have been writing a story together and vow to keep working in it even though separated. They also vow to meet again. The reader follows Elise's story as the family is sent back to Germany in exchange for Americans who had been caught behind enemy lines. The family reunites with the father, Otto's, mother and family and share with them the hardships and bombing raids that are prevalent at the end of the war. The war ends and occupation by the U.S. finds them in slightly better circumstances. The author gives a wonderful picture of this terrible period in our history, Elise and Marino reunited in a very poignant manner. I would have given this book a 5 if the author had written Elise's return to the U.S. in a more logical manner. I found the entire marriage with Ralph and her relationship with his family contrived and rather silly. It's still worth a read. Just skim over the last 125 pages.
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Joy E. (Rockville, MD)
Last Year of the War
The Last Year of the War is at its best when it tells the story of Elise Sontag's experience as the child of a German immigrant falsely accused of being a Nazi sympathizer during World War II. Unlike the mass incarceration of Japanese families in the U.S., individual German citizens were arrested, and held with minimal due process, and offered internment with their families. Elise's parents and brother are sent to a camp in Texas and then "repatriated" to Germany for the last months of the war. The story is a compelling and interesting piece of historical fiction, with a believable account of how an American-born teenager might have reacted.
The book is less successful when it verges into soap opera after the war with the drama of Elise's marriages and interactions with her in-laws. The picture of Elise in old age feels contrived and does not add to an otherwise good book.
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Daryl B. (Poolesville, MD)
Never Give Up On Your Dreams
I loved the fact that Elise, in the early stages of Alzheimer's, was able to reconnect with her childhood friend after so many years and surviving the horrors of war. I think her dreams of finding Mariko were what kept her going through all the devastating losses she endured . The story of the war being told from the perspective of an American girl living in an internment camp was new for me. I didn't realize Germans had been placed in internment camps as well as Japanese. I really enjoyed the book. I would recommend it to historical fiction lovers as well as book clubs.
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Deanna W. (Port Jefferson, NY)
Life long friendship
This novel is well written and well researched...Elsie & Mariko are two teenagers whose lives change forever when they are sent to an internment camp in Texas during WWII...the story is told through flashbacks...it focuses on a little known episode in American history ( at least to me ) of the internment and repatriation of German immigrants...well worth reading ...will engender great discussions for Book Groups...
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Sandra H. (St. Cloud, MN)
An America We Never Knew
Susan Meissner's story puts a human face on those who were caught up in the fear of "aliens" living in the US durring WWII. Most of us are aware of our putting Japanese citizens in camps durring the war but the fact that Germans who had immigrated to the US were also interned was news to me.
The novel centers on Elise Sontag and her family. Elise's father had been in the US for 19 years but never completed his application for citizenship. Thus he and his family are put into an internment camp. However, her father signed papers that stated he could be exchanged for a family of Americans caught in Germany never really believing that would happen.
The novel follows Elise and her reactions to life after she and her family are put in such a camp. She befriends a Mariko, young Japanese girl, who becomes her best friend so while this new life is difficult she adjust. Then her family is sent to war-torn Germany in exchange in an American family trapped there.
The novel shows a part of our history many of us did not know existed for some German families living in the In the United States and then let's us see life in war-torn Germany.
I strongly recommend this novel. It would make a wonderful choice for a book group.
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